Arnold stressed the Mariners were not in a position to fortify their squad for the second half of their A-League campaign.

"No money, it's that simple," Arnold said.

"We work within the salary cap (and) we're not a bigger club that can go out and buy marquee players unfortunately so what we've got is what we have.

"I've got all the faith in the world in these players and I truly think we'll get to the second round of the ACL (Asian Champions League) with this squad."

Arnold refused to get excited about the Mariners' lofty ladder position.

"We've achieved nothing, we're 14 games into the season and we're in a good position, but there's still a long way to go," Arnold said.

"There's still 13 games to go, The challenge is to stay where we are and to perform consistently.

"We've got the ACL that kicks in on February 27th, six, seven weeks before the (A-League) competition finishes, where we've got to do a lot of travelling into Asia as well, so it's going to be tough."

Arnold said captain John Hutchinson and forward Daniel McBreen would be back from suspension for next Sunday's away game with Western Sydney, while defender Patrick Zwaanswijk could return from a groin injury.